Our French Bakery is on a back road in Chester, plenty of folks right here in the village would have had no occasion to travel that road ever. Given the regular neglect by Highways folks, I can’t blame them.

Imagine my surprise when a letter from the Planning Dept, a year ago, informed me that a Nordic Spa complete with saunas and a hammam,  hot pools. an ice cold waterfall, yurts and massage huts  was opening up on the property behind us . That it was run by a French family made me chortle.  The Commons is a pretty quiet area of Chester,  graveyards one of the biggest land uses back there. A Spa! Imagine.

I met the young family with three small children, they are diminutive and good looking, I would have pegged them for French without being told. I have a made a hobby of guessing what nationality folks are and how they take their coffee for the last thirty years.

They selectively cut down trees, opened up the beauty of Stanford Lake and with great planning, knowledge and experience they carved out something new and wonderful in our little hood. Something that attracted dozens and dozens of people yesterday, January 1 on their opening day.

As our Bakery completes its thirtieth year on the South Shore and I wasn’t as busy as I have often been, I spent a lot of time  last year reflecting on what we did, what we did wrong, what we built, who we met, what we have created and what our legacy would be. I admit to an obsessive fascination watching their project unfold because I know how hard it is and how I imagine everything is such a blur for them, they won’t even remember it until about 2050. With three young kids in the mix, anyone self-employed with the worry of  homework, school inservice days, even a sore throat or a tummy ache, feels that Atlantean weight on their shoulders more than most. The work has to get done.

Yesterday more than a dozen new jobs were started, multiple contractors and tradesman worked hard all year. In a small seasonal area like this, that work is really valuable. I can only imagine growth will create many more positions and the spin off with local businesses will benefit us all.

I wanted to give them a gift, I remembered people being kind to us.  A wonderful hairdresser friend, an entrepreneur extraordinaire, gone now – far too young, showed up with his family and scissors, to give us haircuts in the back yard. We did not have time for such things. we truly didn’t. Another Frenchman, Basque to be precise, came with his family brought us dinner -a homemade paella. Just showed up they did. We came home from  work and they were in our kitchen. It makes me weep now when I remember such kindnesses.  Each of our four kids was raised in this village by this village, loved and nourished by neighbours and friends, taken swimming and to movies and soccer by a lot of generous Mums and Dads for whom I am forever grateful.

The Frenchman and I picked up the spa kids yesterday , we took them and the pup for a hike on Graves Island.  Didier hoisted the little girl, petite and doll like, up on his shoulders, the hike we didn’t have time to make with our own little boys back in the early days. 

We had snacks , we had hot chocolate, we watched Disney Plus. Well they did, I napped on the sofa next to them. We had a good time.

Maman and Papa had a wonderfully busy opening day, better than they ever imagined. Entrepreneurs; brave, foolish, crazy and driven. I wish them well. The ride has just begun.